The Band’s ‘Music From Big Pink’ Expanded for 50th

The Band's 1968 debut album, Music From Big Pink, is getting remixed and expanded for its 50th anniversary this year. Six bonus tracks from the sessions, including outtakes and alternate versions, will fill out one of rock's great debut LPs.

The new edition will be available on Aug. 31.

The album has been remixed in stereo and 5.1 surround, and will be released in a Super Deluxe box that includes a CD, Blu-ray, two LPs, and a 7" vinyl single. It will also be available as a single CD; as a digital download; a 180g double LP black vinyl; and a limited-edition 180g two-LP pink vinyl. The 7" single for “The Weight” and “I Shall Be Released” is a reproduction of the original 1968 version.

The box also includes a hardbound book with a new essay and classic photos.

You can see the track listing for the main portion of the album below. You can also watch an unboxing trailer below.

The new remix was overseen by Bob Clearmountain from the original four-track analog masters; Bob Ludwig mastered the new mixes. The bonus tracks include one previously unreleased track, an a cappella version of "I Shall Be Released." The other extras – including the outtake "Yazoo Street Scandal" and an alternate take of "Tears of Rage" – have appeared on other reissues and box sets over the years.

Music From Big Pink was released in July 1968 and served as the Band's debut album, though they were no strangers to fans. By that time, they had already backed Ronnie Hawkins in the early '60s before moving on to Bob Dylan's backing band. They accompanied him during his historic 1966 U.K. tour and were also part of the fabled Basement Tapes which Dylan recorded in 1967.

“We had all of that gathering – the woodshedding and paying our dues, all of that dripping into the music,” the Band's chief songwriter and guitarist Robbie Robertson explains in the new set. “This didn’t sound like anything we had done with Ronnie Hawkins, what we had done as Levon and the Hawks, or what we played on the Dylan tour. This was a music that – hopefully – lived in a time and space that you couldn’t quite put your finger on.”